Ban on Weapons
The ban on weapons continued over the next several centuries, by the Chinese & later Japanese who had invaded the island . The islanders therefore were in the position where they had no choice but to refine their hand to hand fighting methods, & they did this to devastating effect.
The Okinawan people merged their own fighting methods with imported Chinese fighting methods, & Okinawan ‘te’ (hand) subsequently developed. The absence of weaponry created the situation where a very detailed & thorough method of hand to hand combat could develop. Te was practised mainly in secret, often behind closed doors & sometimes only being taught within a single family.

Hundreds of what we would today call ‘styles’ of karate must have disappeared over the years as families died without having passed on their teachings. There were no specific ‘styles’ as there are today, however in the 19th century it appears that styles were named after the location that they were practised in: for example the three most recognised were Naha-te (in Naha city), Shuri-te (Shuri village) & Tomari-te (Tomari village).

Simple farm tools were allowed & the Okinawan people developed devastating means of using these tools as weapons. Weaponry is still practised in many traditional schools & is very beneficial to the martial artist. However some schools reject traditional weaponry practise as ‘no longer relevant’, as the weapons of today are more likely to be knives, guns or broken bottles rather than long swords or farming tools.
Kata have become a favoured method of practising fighting techniques throughout the centuries. A kata (or pattern) would consist of a series of movements performed by an individual, each being a response to an imagined attack or simply an attack in itself. Kata would contain devastating throws, kicks, strikes with knees & elbows, head butts & virtually any means of fighting conceivable against single or multiple opponents.

Early 1900 to WW2
However in the early 1900’s karate was introduced into the Okinawan education systems. The main karate master behind this was Itosu Anko (1830-1915) & he realised that the character development benefits of karate training would be excellent for the Okinawan children.
But he also realised that some techniques that were too dangerous for children to learn, & those techniques were removed from the kata or disguised to protect the children. It is important to remember that the fighting methods were designed to be effective in combat, life or death situations, & this is probably not appropriate for the school playground! So it was necessary to modify the kata, & develop syllabuses & formal teaching methods.
Gichin Funakoshi & Chojun Miyagi are considered to be two of the most influential Karateka of the 20th century. Both were responsible for exporting kara-te (meaning empty hand) to Japan from Okinawa in the 1920’s & 30’s. With the exporting to Japan once again many changes were made to make it more understandable & attractive to the Japanese, & Funakoshi in particular adopted the use of Japanese words & language within his teachings.
This exporting of karate ensured the survival & spread of karate throughout the world. It was only during & after the Second World War when American soldiers were stationed on Okinawa that the West was finally exposed to these teachings.